Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

For Catholic Grownups

February 17, 2019

Gospel: Luke 6:17, 20-26

‘Sunday Connection’ Scripture Commentary

Family Resources from RCL/Benziger

Saints This Week

February 17 Blessed Luke Belludi
February 18 Blessed John of Fiesole (Fra Angelico) patron of Painters
February 19 Saint Conrad of Piacenza
February 20 Blessed Jacinto and Francisco Marto
February 21 Saint Peter Damien, Doctor of the Church
February 22 Chair of Saint Peter
February 23 Saint Polycarp Patron of Earaches
February 23 Servant of God Leo Heinrichs

Scripture Commentary

The Gospels this Sunday, and for the following two weeks, are very challenging. In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus delivers a “Sermon on the Plain”, which is similar in many ways to the better known “Sermon on the Mount” in Matthew’s Gospel. The sayings in the “Sermon on the Plain” are shorter and punchier than the “Sermon on the Mount” where their impact is somewhat softened. Along with the “Blessed are…” saying, Luke also has the “Woes”, which are almost curses, against the rich, satisfied and complacent.

Part of the purpose behind the sayings of Jesus is ‘reversal’ (a prominent theme in Luke’s Gospel), the idea that the Kingdom of God will invert the usual expectations which people have. The ‘chosen ones’ in the Kingdom will be the poor, the outcasts, the sinners, the sick, the humble, rather than people who are favored in the eyes of the world: the rich, the strong, the respectable. This reflects other sayings from earlier in Luke’s Gospel, such as in the Magnificat, in which Mary says, “God has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly. God has filled the hungry with Good things, and sent the rich away empty,” and when Jesus is presented in the Temple to Simeon, who says that “this child is destined for the fall and rise of many,” (Luke 2:34).

For a lot more on this theme, listen to my podcast, “The Option for the Poor and the Gospel of Luke“.